Dragon Boat West

The Pacific Dragonboat Federation ( PDBA) is holding it's qualifier on July 21-22 in Portland - Vancouver Lake. 

The San Francisco Bay Area Dragons - BAD Dragons have entered in all 6 divisions.  We are short paddlers - especially in the Masters Divisions.  Preference will be given to paddlers that are interested in racing in Penang.  A $200 deposit will be required if you are interested in Penang.

BAD will be fielding strong teams in some divisions.  On the other hand, it does not bother us if we field a weaker team under our name.  The important thing is that we have fun in Penang.  You will be expected to try your best.

Alvin

 I believe the rules for the club crews will not allow paddlers from outside of your home area to jump on your team . In other words you cannot have someone from LA , Portland, Seattle or Vancouver ,Canada rostered with your team .They clearly have to be a part of your regular crew and attend some of your practices .You could open yourself up for protest and thats the last thing you want when you worked hard and traveled so far to race

 Play safe and keep the crew local

Canada has far more rules than the US or IDBF.  For example the 2 premier paddler rule in the CC's.  Those rules are internal to Canada and do not apply in the US.  Philly and San Diego regularly recruit across the US.  Ellen Law from NJ assembles her Masters crews from across the US.  They all raced in Toronto.

A few days ago, I discussed this with the PDBA board.  We actually encourages it since most of the Western US DB member clubs do not have the organizational strength to send a team overseas.  We would like to seed encourage more teams to have members race overseas in the hopes that they can spread the bug to their own clubs.  This would increase the PDBA membership.

Technically, the IDBF club crew rules do not say anything about nationality.  BAD is not actively recruiting in Canada but I hear that the entire Jamaican team in CCWC in Toronto was actually from Canada.  They just bought membership in a Jamaican DB club.

Bottom Line
The USDBF did not field 5 crews in every division in Toronto.  What are the chances that we will be able to field 5 crews in Penang?  USDBF rules are designed to encourage more teams not less.

Don't let PaddleBoy scare you.

Alvin

 Yes Alvin it appears you may be right .You spoke to Greg and he mentioned it to me . I was thinking the canadian rules and its unfortunate it may not apply across the board to other countries but I would hope you do take a  better look into the present rules and just make sure that your choices are correct .

 This is one of the problems with the whole club crew championships .It was meant for teams that were already true club teams that race together and train together and not teams that draw from all over to form a crew ....thats why we have the World Championships such as the one that will be held in Australia in sept of this yr .This worlds is meant for teams that are hand picked from across the country and to show the best that you have ..... this is not meant for teams that race as the same crew throughout the year althought some teams at the worlds do

 As for the jamacian team that was actually a toronto team ..they should never have been allowed in and they found a loophole that let them get in.They were not strong enough  a team to win entry so they decided to use a loophole ,and again I hope they fix it for the next event because it really makes the event look bad .That Jamacian team got slaughtered so not exactly sure what their thinking was other than to just be a part of some great racing

 In any case ...good luck with your recruiting and bring the best you can find because you will need it at either . Hopefully at some point and time they will finally close all these silly loopholes and make the club crews what it was meant to be .........Pretty embarrasing when you bring your hand picked or national team to a club crew and get your butt kick by a true club team ........

AlvinWang,

Just to clarify, IDBF World's are competitions in various categories with national teams competing against each other (IDBF Bylaw 3.10.1).  IDBF Club Crew championships are compeititions in various categories with club crews competing against each other (IDBF Bylaw 3.10.2).

In theory, if the recognized Jamaican authority for dragonboating selected a crew from Canada, that would be allowed for a IDBF World Championship.  What you are doing for Penang (6th Club Crew World Championships) is clearly against the rules, and if "certain" teams found out, they could ask for disqualifications.  Luckily for all of us, I wouldn't know some Toronto team had some Montrealers on their crew.  Putting the word out on this forum could cause a few international crews to be wary, and may send a letter of protest.

I am not sure how you are organized, but here, if someone paddles out of GO Rowing and Paddling association dock in Victoria, BC would probably not count as part of a GO Rowing and Paddling association dock out of Penticton, BC.  

Basically, I am agreeing with paddleboy.  AlvinWang, I recommend you a) check the rules at www.idbf.org or b) contact the IDBF 3rd vice-president in the United States at [email protected] or c) contact www.usdbf.org - [email protected] for a ruling rather than the sub-national organization's interpretation.

I hope this help.

ps. good luck at Alcan this year.

I am sure that you both mean well.  BAD may not be a former World Champion like False Creek or even a national Champion.  However, I have my own printed copy of the IDBF and USDBF rules. 

I don't need to talk to Bob Morro, Gary Carstens - USDBF President or Mike Haslam - IDBF president.  I have talked to all of them in the past.  They are nice people but the rules are clear.  They are not perfect but they are clear.

PDBA rules says that everyone must be a member of BAD 30 days prior to the race or June 21, 2007.  Nobody in the US is going to protest any team that qualifies because we will be lucky to have 5 crews go to Penang in any given division.

IDBF rules state that you must be a member of the club 90 days prior to the race.  When BAD competed in Rome, we submitted team rosters 90 days prior to the event.  At Rome, the big controversy was national flags on club uniforms.  To be a club, you pretty much just have to wear the same jersey without a national flag.

Anybody that paddles for BAD in Penang must be a member of BAD by May 1, 2008.  May 1, 2008 is a long way away.  How BAD qualifies it's members or how many practices BAD has together is not covered in the rules.

In fact, Penang is a long way away.  Currently, my interest is completing a few Masters crews so my Masters paddlers can all get medals in Portland.  There will be 3 or less crews in the Masters Divisions.  Afterwards, we will see how many teams BAD qualifies for Penang and if we feel like going.  BAD won entries for Shanghai, Capetown, and Toronto but we passed. 

I can assure you that BAD will not be violating any rules that apply to us.  I realize that we might be violating Canadian rules but they do not apply to the US as PaddleBoy noted.  I moved to the the US 12 yrs ago so I am not up on all the Canadian rules.  Then again, I am not up on German or UK rules either. 

At the IDBF level, the top concern is having the biggest races so IDBF can govern DB racing instead of ICF.  In Penang, anybody that is willing to rent a hotel room is welcome. 

We always enjoy Vancouver.  It will be fun.  I will be bringing some new paddlers.  Some of the veterans want to take a break from Vancouver plus the Canadian dollar is making shopping a lot less fun.

Alvin

Last thing to add to this thread.  A brief mention in the IDBF Racing Competition handbook about team rosters that all members on this roster must be a citizen and/or resident of the sponsoring country.  Of course, that sucks because I can't even apply to join your crew. :(

Other than that, it sounds like you have covered your bases, so find some decent paddlers and have fun at the qualifiers in Portland. 

Shucks on some of the vets not coming out to Vancouver, but I am sure you will find some replacements (I guess 1 female left from your last post).  Also, there is some pretty cheap shopping still found in and around town, just gotta find the spots. 

Blah, blah, blah.... just watching Firefly reruns.  Insomnia sucks.  See you on the water next week.